It would be hard to argue that any comic book superhero has enjoyed a more sustained popularity over the last five decades than Spider-Man. The Marvel Comics character, the mainstay of that company’s flagship publication The Amazing Spider-Man, has been spun off into numerous other venues, from cartoon and live action television shows to a rock album, a series of wildly popular theatrical movies, and even a recurring part in the old PBS series The Electric Company.

The Spectacular Spider-Man is a current incarnation of this comics legend that takes its name from a now-defunct spin-off comic book title. It’s a half-hour cartoon series, aimed primarily at kids but with some postmodern nods to adults, and basically offers an early 21st century update of the original Spider-Man comic books. Here, Peter Parker (voiced by Josh Keaton) attends high school with Harry Osborn and Gwen Stacey. Bully Flash Thompson is also around, and Parker’s future wife Mary Jane Watson transfers to his school midway in the series. Parker lives at home with his Aunt May, and moonlights as the crimefighting Spider-Man whenever he can. As he battles colorful super-villains, he’s taking snapshots of himself for the newspaper Daily Bugle. Several of the classic characters from that fictional periodical are here, including Betty Brant and the obnoxious J. Jonah Jameson (voiced hilariously by Daran Norris).

The series is light and fun, with a nice sense of humor. As such, it captures the essence of Spider-Man fairly well. Each episode is relatively self-contained, although certain plot points connect the episodes into a larger whole. The animation strikes me as bright and colorful – and certainly competent for a weekly television program. The characters are presented with some awkward angularity at times, but at least it’s consistent and uniform in presentation. As an old comics fan, I enjoyed this updating of the Spider-Man mythos, and I certainly imagine that it will entertain its core audience: adolescents.

In season 2 Peter Parker’s life becomes significantly more complicated as he finds himself torn between Gwen Stacy and Liz Allan, both of whom have confessed their feelings for him; he eventually chooses Liz. Norman Osborn takes on the role of Peter’s mentor, pulling strings to re-establish his job as Dr. Connors’ lab assistant, as well as overseeing the installment of the conniving Dr. Miles Warren into the ESU Labs. Meanwhile, as Spider-Man, Peter encounters new villains Mysterio and Kraven the Hunter, leading him to investigate the activities of a mysterious new crime lord known as the “Master Planner”.When the Master Planner’s first scheme fails, Spider-Man is faced with a three-way gang war between the Planner’s super-villain forces, the Big Man’s established order, and the old guard of Silvio “Silvermane” Manfredi’s family. Peter’s search for Eddie Brock also leads to the return of Venom, who attempts to expose Spider-Man’s secret identity and remove his powers. Finally, when the three major crime lords are arrested, Spider-Man once again goes up against the Green Goblin, who is once again bent on eliminating the wall-crawler once and for all.

Other new characters introduced in the second season include Calypso, Sha Shan Nguyen, Silver Sable, Roderick Kingsley and Molten Man. Quentin Beck and Phineas Mason return as Mysterio and the Tinkerer respectively.It appears that the episodes in this eighth volume of The Spectacular Spider-Man are the swan song of the series. That’s a shame as this was a fun and energetic cartoon take on the classic Marvel superhero. Based upon content, The show was cancelled to make way for the Ultimate Spider-man cartoon which as we all know is just a train wreck.

Joshua Mason (Josh Hutcherson) is a troubled 15-year-old who is abandoned by his mother at a motel in Carmel-by-the-Sea. The story begins with Joshua finishing a painting at an old mission and selling it for $50, only to be caught by the artist who had left the painting on an easel. He returns to the motel room to sleep. When the motel manager comes to collect payment, Joshua grabs his belongings and runs out the back door. A social worker, Vanessa Reese, visits the manager and he explains that he hasn’t seen the boy’s mother for some time. He shows Vanessa the room and that the boy has painted some amazing art on the walls, mirror and ceiling. Joshua, meanwhile, wanders around the town and chats to a girl, Amber, through a school yard fence. One of the school’s faculty reprimands Amber for not returning to school and grabs her by the arm to take her to the principal’s office. Joshua becomes upset with how aggressive the teacher is, pulling at her arm, and shouts at him to give her a break and pick on someone his own size. Joshua climbs the fence and pulls Amber from the teacher’s grip only to be confronted by two boys – one of them her brother Ryan, who thinks she’s being harassed. Joshua punches Ryan, who then punches back. Joshua runs off, climbs the fence and shouts back he’s sorry to the girl. When it starts to rain, he hides in a culvert but gets caught in the flowing water. His hand is cut as he falls out of the culvert into the sea/coast below.
Joshua walks along the rocky coastline and happens upon a large sea-side mansion and finding a side door that’s been left open, ‘breaks’ in. He showers, cleans up his cut and now starving, makes himself a large sandwich. While exploring the mansion, he finds an art studio with a painting that is half complete (being copied from a photo) and finishes it before falling asleep. When he awakens he’s confronted by the police and taken to child services. He tells the social worker that he doesn’t know where his mother is.
Back at the mansion, the owner, Everly (Alfred Molina), finds the now-finished painting and believes the boy has real talent since he had been unable to find anyone to complete the portrait, let alone do it with such complete accuracy. Everly decides to take in the boy thinking that he might be able to exploit his art talent. While eating breakfast one morning, Everly gives Joshua an expensive fountain pen as a gift and the two talk about art. Joshua, knowing little on the history of art, jokingly tells Everly that his favorite artist is Hank Ketcham, the creator of Dennis the Menace. During a charity art benefit, Joshua meets a kind old woman named Anne-Marie Cole (Lauren Bacall). He also meets Ryan, Amber’s brother, and the two apologize to each other about what had gone down at the school yard the other day. Ryan says Amber told him the full story of what happened and thanks Joshua for looking out for his sister. The two talk about Anne-Marie and how she’s indeed cool but also loaded.
That night, Joshua breaks into Anne-Marie’s home but is unsure of why he does. He begins to go through some of her things and finds a leather-thong necklace with a small vial (filled with something that he later finds out to be cyanide) which he pilfers, as well as a picture of an unknown man. Anne-Marie discovers Joshua in the room and asks him what he is doing. He asks who the man is in the photograph. She tells him it is an artist named George and nothing more. She then calls Everly to come and collect him. The next day Joshua and Amber talk on the beach. When Amber asks what she could do to repay him, he states that she could give him a kiss. She laughs it off and races him down the beach but drops her keys in an effort to win. She beats him and while trying to get her keys back from him, he kisses her without warning. She pushes him off, demands for him to give her the keys before leaving him on the beach. There he finds a large black dog and learns that it is Anne-Marie’s dog Matilda. He takes Matilda home to Anne-Marie and the two of them talk over a bowl of soup.
Meanwhile, Vanessa continues her search to find Joshua’s mother and learns that she may be living with her boyfriend. Joshua goes to Amber’s and gives her a portrait of her that he had drawn. She smiles and comments that it looks good and invites him to sit with her. Joshua apologizes for what he did at the beach and that he was foolish for kissing her like that. She tells him that it was the worst kiss she had ever experienced and teaches him how to “properly” kiss a girl. Meanwhile, Everly has sold the painting that Joshua had completed earlier but needs to complete a Winslow Homer in just a couple of weeks or lose his art galleries along with everything he owns. He decides to take a risk and use the boy seeing as he is the only one who could complete the portrait accurately and on time. Joshua attends a party that Amber is throwing and sees her in the arms of another guy, who happens to be her cousin. He grows jealous and follows them in the house and is about to confront him but he is held back by Ryan. Joshua and Ryan fight, resulting in Joshua hitting Ryan with a pool ball.
Joshua goes to Anne-Marie’s where she tends to his wounds. She tells him that just seeing something won’t give you the truth, that you sometimes have to look at something in a different light. She then asks if he would like to live with her. He tells her that he would have to think about it. Back at Everly’s, Joshua confronts Everly about his forgery scheme and how for $500 he will keep his mouth shut. Everly gives him a different proposition: If he does one more painting he will get half the money made from it – a possibility of millions. Joshua, amazed, says yes. For a week he learns what forgers have to do so their paintings pass as authentic. When the painting is finished, Joshua and Everly have an unpleasant conversation. Joshua, having second thoughts, then takes the painting from the house and hides it.
Meanwhile, Vanessa finds Joshua’s mother living with her boyfriend and a child. Vanessa then calls child protective services to rescue the child. She goes back to her office and takes a closer look at Joshua’s file and learns that he has been abused by his mother. She discovers that Anne-Marie wants to become Joshua’s permanent guardian. She learns how Anne-Marie had been questioned by the police and fell under suspicion of forgery. Vanessa also learns that Anne-Marie lost her family in a house fire and was unable to save her only surviving daughter. Joshua goes to Anne-Marie’s after hearing a rumor from Everly that she was once a forger. He goes through her stuff and finds a forger’s hammer and a newspaper clipping about how she was suspected of art forgeries. He then runs away feeling that he cannot trust anyone. Vanessa then meets with Joshua and tells him she could not find his mother. Joshua then breaks down in tears feeling that he is unwanted.
Ryan talks to Joshua and tells him he needs to apologize to Amber, which he does. Joshua then goes ahead and steals the painting. Anne-Marie goes to Everly’s to talk to Joshua and finds the door unlocked. She goes in and wanders into the art studio where she learns that Joshua has stolen the painting. Joshua then goes to the art exhibit and returns the painting, but before he leaves Anne-Marie, in front of everybody, slices the portrait and tells everyone that it was a forgery and that she at one time painted one of Everly’s forgeries and has regretted it ever since. The portrait is confirmed to be a forgery when an underpainting of Dennis the Menace is revealed. In the end, Joshua agrees to Anne-Marie’s request and lives with her, and is also in a relationship with Amber. He states that, “I wasn’t sure what I was looking for at first when I broke into Anne-Marie’s house, but now I know. I was looking for a place to belong.”Forget about all the weak points within the script and enjoy this movie as a very good piece of light entertainment.

The opening scenes of The Plan occur just prior to the destruction of the Twelve Colonies in the televised miniseries, Battlestar Galactica. Humanoid Cylon John Cavil is shown leading the planning for the genocidal attack on the human race. The seven known Cylons are present in the control room of the main Cylon base. Two versions of Cavil are shown in a Resurrection Ship, with the “Final Five” Cylons in stasis in resurrection chambers. The two versions of Cavil briefly discuss their plans for “teaching a lesson” to their creators, the Final Five. One version of Cavil announces his intention to witness the destruction of humanity on the ground. This version of Cavil travels to the planet Picon, where he encounters Ellen Tigh. Other characters from the series are also depicted: Gaius Baltar has a final meeting with Caprica Six; Samuel Anders is shown at his Pyramid team’s training camp along with the team doctor, who is Number Four/Simon; and Tory Foster (Rekha Sharma) is shown driving to an airport.The destruction of the Twelve Colonies is depicted in a series of new special effects shots, with the Cylon Hybrid narrating the destruction with oblique poetry. Almost all of the planets of the Twelve Colonies are depicted in short scenes. Ellen Tigh is severely wounded in the nuclear attack on Picon. Cavil helps her leave the planet aboard a Colonial Fleet rescue ship. Aboard a civilian transport, Cavil torments the half-conscious woman with descriptions of his intent to destroy humanity. Tory Foster survives the nuclear attack as well, but is wounded when her car flips over in the blast Anders helps console his teammates in the mountainous region where they were training. Several scenes from the television miniseries are edited into The Plan.Cavil later boards the Galactica, calling himself “Brother Cavil,” and takes over the Galactica’s chapel. The creation of Galactica’s “wall of remembrance” is depicted, where survivors posted pictures and mementos of their dead or missing loved ones. Using religious fliers which talk about a “plan”, Cavil covertly gathers the seven known cylons. Cavil tells them that he intends to continue his plan to utterly destroy the human race. He also tells them that there is a sleeper agent aboard the Galactica, a Number Eight, whom he also plans to use. Back on Cylon-occupied Caprica, Sam Anders and his teammates have fled their training center for safer quarters. They spot Cylon Centurions collecting the parts of their fallen comrades. Later, Sam and his companions launch their first attack on the Cylons, losing several people in a successful attack. Sam and Jean Barolay later observe several Number Fives burying numerous dead human bodies, realize that Cylons have taken humanoid form, and resolve to attack them. They do so later, while a Cavil version supervises the Fives’ work. Cavil plays dead and survives the attack unharmed. Mistakenly believing Cavil to be a human being, Sam and his friends take the priest with them back to their camp. Cavil is clearly shocked to see Anders, because he is one of the original Final Five. Back on the Galactica, the events of the first season episodes unfold from the Cylon’s perspective. Brother Cavil triggers the original Cylon programming of the Number Eight known as Sharon “Boomer” Valerii. She plans a bombing of the ship’s water storage facilities. As she tries to implement her plan, Boomer becomes increasingly distraught because she has fallen in love with Chief Galen Tyrol (Aaron Douglas). Cavil becomes angry when the Number Five known as Aaron Doral is exposed as a Cylon, and demands that he attempt to kill Commander Adama. The Number Two, meanwhile, listens in on Colonial Fleet communications, and becomes convinced that Kara “Starbuck” Thrace (Katee Sackhoff) holds some special purpose for the humanoid Cylons. He begins to paint the nebula depicted in Season Three episodes. Cavil, realizing that the Number Two known as Leoben Conoy has had his identity compromised, demands that the Number Two turn himself over to the humans and attempt to deceive or kill them. When Boomer’s plan to deprive the Fleet of water fails (and Boomer ironically helps the Galactica locate more water), Cavil demands that she kill Commander Adama. She first attempts suicide, and later purposefully botches the assassination attempt.Cavil, worried about Dr. Baltar’s attempt to develop a Cylon detection machine, orders the Number Six known as Shelly Godfrey to frame Baltar for treason. She does so, but her attempt fails when her evidence is exposed as a sham by Lieutenant Gaeta. Cavil orders the Six into an airlock and kills her. Cally Henderson’s assassination of Boomer is depicted as well. Cavil also orders the Number Four known as Simon to destroy the ship on which he lives with his family. Simon commits suicide rather than kill the family he has grown to love. In the aftermath of Simon’s suicide, Simon’s wife Giana tries to convince everyone that he wasn’t a Cylon. She seeks solace from Chief Tyrol, who is beginning to suspect that he himself might be a Cylon.
Meanwhile, back on Cylon-occupied Caprica, the other version of Cavil has ingratiated himself with Sam Anders. Cavil has ordered the Number Four to attempt to kill members of Sam’s team, but none have died and Cavil criticizes the Four’s actions. Starbuck returns to Caprica and meets the stranded Colonial pilot Karl “Helo” Agathon. Cavil makes a failed attempt to trick Sam into thinking they are Cylons and attacking them. Helo and Starbuck join them and attack a local Cylon base. Starbuck is wounded, taken captive by the Cylons, and subjected to various breeding experiments. Anders, Helo, and the others rescue her, discovering that Simon is a Cylon in the process. Later, Cavil tries to assassinate Starbuck and Anders but finds that he cannot pull the trigger, because he cannot stop thinking about Anders’ comment that death wouldn’t make him love these people any less. When the Cylon Centurions attack, Cavil is forced to hide with the rest of the humans. That night, Cavil meets with a Number Six who informs him that the Cylons have agreed to end their attacks on the human race. Cavil, who has changed his mind about humanity, agrees to pass on the message to the humans. Cavil returns to the human camp, and the humans leave the next day for the Galactica.
Meanwhile, the Brother Cavil on the Galactica is bedeviled by the repeated appearance of a young boy named John (Alex Ferris) in his chapel. Their various interactions finally end when the fake priest offers the boy an apple and then stabs him to death. The Plan ends with “Caprica Cavil” arriving aboard the Galactica, and exposing himself and Brother Cavil as humanoid Cylons (as depicted in scenes from the second season episode “Lay Down Your Burdens”). We realize from the Cylon perspective that he does this on purpose to stop Brother Cavil’s plans. Brother Cavil is brought to the brig protesting that he is not a Cylon until he sees Caprica Cavil already in the brig, at which point he stops pretending. Caprica Cavil announces that the Cylons have voted to give the humans “a reprieve” because they have decided that their attempts at genocide were an error. They have left the colonies and will stop hunting the humans.The two Cavils argue while on their way to the airlock. Brother Cavil is in disbelief that the Cylons have decided to leave the humans alone, and continues to argue for their destruction. But Caprica Cavil asserts that Brother Cavil does not understand the nature of love. He says that the Final Five loved humanity, and that Brother Cavil is jealous of this love. Brother Cavil, he claims, does not understand that God and the Final Five will love humanity even more if the human race is extinguished. As they are escorted to the airlock, the Cavils see all of the Final Five Cylons watching them. They admit that this wasn’t the reunion they had expected. The two Cavils are then forced into the airlock. Caprica Cavil quietly tells his other self that he knows how terrifying death can be, and offers his hand, which Brother Cavil takes. The two are ejected, and float out past the fleet. The film ends with this scene overlaid with John Cavil’s fourth-season tirade lamenting his human-like body and desiring to be more like a machine so that he could “see gamma rays, hear x-rays, smell dark matter…and feel the solar wind of a super-nova” flowing over him.The Plan features very little to no extra scenes for the major crew members of Galactica, save Boomer, Anders and Tyrol. Olmos does a great job of directing but due to the story cutting between the work of many directors, it is hard to judge his individual style. The fact that it is stylistically seamless is a credit in itself. This is recommended for fans of the show, and a must-have for anyone interested in the Cylons and their motivations.

Razor straddles two stools. On the one hand, it is a balls-to-the-wall action story with huge, epic CGI battle sequences and lots of emotional intensity which is designed to appeal to newcomers as well as established fans. On the other, it features a lot of fan-pleasing asides and references to the original series. This is a somewhat odd idea (going for newbies and hardcore fans at the same time) but just about works, with the new character of Kendra providing a worthwhile ‘in’ to this story and universe for new viewers but at the same time allowing established fans to see stuff they’ve wanted to see since the series began.
The TV movie lives or dies on the performance of actress Stephanie Jacobson as Kendra Shaw and thankfully she delivers a competent performance. The actress has a great rapport with Katee Sackhoff and Michelle Forbes, and in these scenes she is extremely good. The other actors are as trusty and reliable as ever.
Overall, Razor an enjoyable slice of Battlestar Galactica. The DVD edition is extended over the TV cut by some 15 minutes and features a lengthy flashback to the First Cylon War (complete with another huge battle sequence) as well as other new scenes, plus a writer and producer’s commentary.

If you want to watch a brilliantly scripted series, then this is the one for you. In a nutshell, Humanity inhabits the Twelve Colonies of Man, somewhere out there in the galaxy. They created robots, “Cylons”, who did everything we wanted until they rebelled. A massive war broke out which ultimately ended in the Cylons leaving the Twelve Colonies. No-one had heard from the Cylons in 40 years until the events of the Mini-Series where they come back and completely destroy Humanity. The survivors (Around 50,000 people) are forced to flee the Colonies where billions have already died and forced to find a new home with the Cylons constantly in pursuit. The idea is to follow the route of the “13th Tribe/Colony” who went out into the stars and settled on a planet named “Earth”. That’s the basic premise of the story but so much happens over the 4 seasons that I’d feel ashamed to spoil it for others. It’s hard to say what parts of BSG really stood out because all of it was so frakking good but some notable parts are the entire “New Caprica” occupation storyline at the end of Season 2/start of Season 3, the big reveal of 4 out of 5 of the “Final Five” Cylons at the end of Season 3/start of Season 4, the hopelessness that is felt after “Earth” is actually found mid-Season 4 and the final battle at the end of Season 4.
The storyline can be bleak at times and sometimes you do think whether you’d have the strength to carry on if you were in their position but that’s what makes it so interesting to watch. Add in a dash of “God”, “Angels”, “Prophecy” and “Destiny” and you have a perfect recipe for a great story.Highly recommended!

After a 40-year armistice in a war between the Twelve Colonies (the homeworlds populated by humans) and the Cylons (human-created robots), the Cylons launch a surprise nuclear attack intended to exterminate the human race. Virtually all of the population of the Twelve Colonies are wiped out. Most of the Colonial military is either rendered ineffective or destroyed due to malware in the military computer network that renders it vulnerable to cyber attack. The malware was introduced by Number Six (Tricia Helfer), a Cylon in the form of a human woman, who seduced the famous scientist Dr. Gaius Baltar (James Callis) and exploited their relationship to gain access codes under the cover of an insider contract bid.The Battlestar Galactica, an aircraft carrier in space that fought in the earlier war, is in the final stages of being decommissioned and converted to a museum when the attack occurs. During her decades of colonial service the Galactica’s computer systems had never been networked so the Galactica is unaffected by the Cylon sabotage. Its commander, William Adama (Edward James Olmos), assumes command of the few remaining elements of the human fleet. He heads for the Ragnar Anchorage, a military armory station where the Galactica can resupply itself with weaponry and essential supplies.
Caprica under bombardment during the Cylon attack.Secretary of Education Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell) is sworn in as President of the Twelve Colonies after it is confirmed that the President and most of the government have been killed (Roslin is 43rd in line of succession). The government starship carrying her (Colonial One) manages to assemble a group of surviving civilian ships. When a Colonial Raptor shuttle from the Galactica lands briefly for repairs on the Twelve Colonies’ capital world of Caprica, the two-person crew, Sharon Valerii (callsign “Boomer”) (Grace Park) and Karl C. Agathon (callsign “Helo”) (Tahmoh Penikett), offer to evacuate a small group of survivors. Helo remains on the stricken planet, giving up his seat to evacuate Baltar, whom he recognizes for his celebrity status as a scientific genius.The Cylons locate the human civilian fleet, and Roslin is forced to make the decision to order all of the ships capable of faster-than-light (FTL) travel to “jump” immediately to escape. Unfortunately this means abandoning many of the survivors who are aboard ships without FTL technology, and as Roslin and the FTL ships jump away, the Cylons launch an attack on the remaining ships.At the Ragnar Anchorage space station, Adama is attacked by a supposed arms dealer who claims to be simply bootlegging supplies, but who is clearly being affected by the radiation cloud surrounding Ragnar, which humans are immune to. Adama deduces that he is facing a new type of Cylon that looks, sounds, and acts human.As the civilian fleet joins the Galactica at Ragnar, President Roslin appoints Dr. Baltar, who has not disclosed his suborning by the Cylons, as one of her scientific advisers to combat the Cylons. Number Six reveals herself to Baltar in hallucinatory form while attempting to direct his behavior. She suggests that she may have planted a microchip inside Baltar’s brain while he slept, allowing her to transmit her image into his conscious mind. Responding to one of her suggestions, he is compelled to identify Aaron Doral, a public relations specialist, as a Cylon agent masquerading as a human. Despite his protests and the lack of any evidence to support the accusation, Doral is left at Ragnar when the Galactica departs.As the Cylons blockade Ragnar, the Galactica and its fleet of Vipers engage the Cylon fleet in order to allow the civilian fleet to escape by “jumping” to a distant, unexplored area outside of their star system. The Galactica and the colonial fleet make good their escape. Adama then attempts to lift the morale of the surviving humans by announcing plans to reach a legendary thirteenth colony called “Earth”, whose existence and location have been closely guarded military secrets. Roslin is skeptical and later confronts Adama and makes him admit that Earth is simply an ancient myth. Returning to his quarters, Adama finds an anonymous note has been left for him stating “There are only 12 Cylon models.” On Ragnar, Doral clearly appears to be suffering from radiation poisoning that has been shown to affect only Cylons. His identity as a Cylon is confirmed when a group of Cylons, including the metallic Cylon Centurions and several humanoid Cylons consisting of multiple copies of the Number Six, Doral, and Ragnar arms-dealer models, come to retrieve Doral. In a twist ending, one of the group appears to be Boomer, indicating that her counterpart on the Galactica is a Cylon as well.

For fans of the original series this will be an initially unwelcome show, it makes so many changes to so many aspects of the show that it will be hard to adjust at first. But give it a chance, watch this through and there’s good odds you’ll be sold. In conclusion, this is three hours of pure gold. It’s gripping, thrilling, compelling and just plain entertaining from start to finish. Once you finish watching it you’ll be heading strait to the first full season, and trust me, you won’t be disappointed.

Andrew Sensenig (Stray)
Logan Browning (Summerland)
Justin Leak (Insurgent)
Shelby Steel (The Friendless Five)
William Mapother (Lost)
Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica)
Enrico Colantoni (Veronica Mars)
Michelle Forbes (True Blood)
Teri Wyble (Terminator Genisys)
Wil Wheaton (The Big Bang Theory)
Robin Spriggs (Containment)Powers’ first season was acceptable, but it was also noticeably faulty in many respects. For the first PlayStation Original Series, the show was a fair adaptation of its source comics, published initially by Image Comics, and later by Marvel’s Icon imprint, but it was also a show that pretty clearly established that PlayStation was nowhere near becoming the new television heavyweight. Fortunately, the second season of Powers is overall an improvement over the first (especially since, unlike Season One, it actually released here in Canada on time!), being founded on a decent mystery, and increasing some of the production values, complete with the show now having a proper intro for the opening credits, rather than just a lame title call like in Season One.
Despite some of its improvements though, Season Two of Powers still feels like it’s trailing most primetime television shows, let alone many Netflix shows that are also vying for the streaming attention of 18-49 audiences. It’s also trailing even some lesser comic book shows on primetime syndication in its second season, though at least the show is moving in a forward direction, and a potential third season, which Sony hasn’t confirmed one way or the other as of this writing, could have the show better keeping pace with some of its competition on other TV platforms.
First, let’s start with what the second season of Powers really did right; Its sense of mystery and intrigue. The season’s initial springboarding from the murder of Retro Girl led to two very enjoyable premiere episodes of three, even though the third premiere episode was a bit less interesting. The Retro Girl mystery was one that had a lot of angles, and its twist resolution, of the murder being a rather trivial act by a toy maker that wanted to sell a hot commemoration figure, was actually pretty solid too, and unfolded in another of this season’s best episodes. Compared to the Wolfe conflict from Season One, the Retro Girl murder felt tighter and more satisfying, especially when it could more closely utilize the same story arc from the Powers source comics.
Another element of this season that was particularly strong were the individual arcs of Walker and Pilgrim, Walker especially. Walker’s past arrogance and fall as Diamond was effectively expanded upon this season, beyond the tutelage of Wolfe, and Walker’s connection to the now-absent Johnny Royalle, and the way that this tied into the present, with Walker having to be a begrudging mentor to a new team of superheroes, New Unity, was also pretty inspired. Likewise, Pilgrim’s connection to her father also had some interesting developments, with Pilgrim’s values especially being tested when she ends up falling for Kutter, who is critically injured later in the season by one of the principal villains, Morrison, a character with a big connection to Michael Madsen’s brand new legacy Power, SuperShock. Everything ending with Pilgrim getting her own abilities, and immediately seeming to be corrupted by them, is one of many things with solid promise for a potential third season of Powers as well.
It’s at that latter point however that Powers’ second season especially runs into problems. For whatever reason, the show awkwardly changes gears just over the halfway point of Season Two, completely wrapping up the Retro Girl mystery, and instead moving into another conspiracy involving a mentally-degrading SuperShock. This would be fine on paper, though it sweeps way too many elements from earlier in the season under the rug, and makes most of the new character and story developments from the early episodes end up being completely pointless in the end. Another problem is that, while the idea of SuperShock being the downfall of himself and his own world, much to the delight of his fading arch-nemesis, Morrison, is great on paper, it shouldn’t have been crowbarred at the tail end of a season. It just leads to SuperShock’s sudden mental breakdown and murder spree feeling rather rushed and contrived. Michael Madsen was a cool addition to the cast for sure, but after a while, he sort of stopped trying in his performance, since even Madsen clearly knew that SuperShock’s storyline wasn’t given nearly enough room to be properly fleshed out, especially with SuperShock seemingly throwing himself and Walker into the sun at the end of the season.
One lingering problem that the show almost completely failed to fix in Season Two as well is the same horrible lack of focus from the first season. The first season felt like it was very spread thin in trying to develop all of these many story arcs that didn’t always go together, and when you only have ten-episode seasons of Powers, especially when the episodes clock in at a mere forty minutes or so each, you can’t afford to get distracted with too much unnecessary world-building. The later portions of Season Two did tighten the focus a bit, in fairness, but the front half of the season especially jumped around way too much, and needed to pick a more consistent direction, especially considering the weird storyline shift from the Retro Girl murder to the SuperShock breakdown. Fortunately, making Zora, Calista, Krispin, and new addition, Martinez into one team in New Unity, could be a good way to fix some of the focus problems in Season Three, if Powers is renewed for a third season.
Despite Powers still doing its best to be raw, mature and sometimes harshly violent, there still isn’t too much to dig into in Season Two, with the show clearly wanting to appeal to adults and fans of the source comics, but mostly still coming off like it’s primarily targeting adolescents. That said though, Powers still improved in its second season, however slightly, and could keep improving nicely in a third season, if it gets one. Like I’ve said more than once, you can only expect so much from a PlayStation Original Series, but Powers is still respectable, and has glimmers of brilliance, especially in some of Season Two’s better episodes.
With a tightening of story focus and slightly deeper character arcs, a third season could finally start standing with the many other successful comic book shows of the current television era, even if Powers will probably never be in the same league as comic book series darlings like The Flash or Marvel’s Netflix shows. As a neat little bonus for PlayStation Plus subscribers that love superhero media though, Powers is becoming noticeably more worth your time in its second season, even if there’s still plenty of room to further improve.